Book 2 – Page 25

[balder]

New One is up.

[mhangman]

so our sammy going to be face ansom first when they weaken GK army jillian and her friends can destroy ansom or she can make a hit and run tactic to capture him... GK must do something very big to save their units from this.

[sheepfly]

Man, sucks to be Haggar.

Pissing off Charlie just because you can, from a position of vulnerability? BAD idea.

[The Black Hand]

Well, obviously Prince Sammy is pissed off at Charlie.

i think he'd love nothing better than to lay some massive smack down upon the forces of Charlescomm, but he knows that's not possible right now (edit: if ever).

So, Sammy's directing his anger at being threatened by Charlie at the forces of Gobwin Knob instead . . . which, I suspect, will have disastrous consequences for him at the very least, and quite possible the men under his command as well.

[BLANDCorporatio]

Wait, does this mean Haggar gets cannon-foddered over Exposition bridge?

Wow. Cool, I guess, I'm not that big a Sammy Haggar (Erfworld) fan, but it does seem like that plan is a tad ... inefficient. We'll see, and besides probably Charlie wasn't going for efficiency this once.

Btw, next comic strip would be a great time for a reference to some Metal battle Hymn or such, like say Manowar with their countless Warrior Brothers of Metal with Hearts of Steel etc.

[gameboy1234]

So I guess "Norp norp!" is the sound GK's trumpet's make? To signal incoming troops. We all assumed it was the megawhatits but it doesn't seem like they'd be sounding off right now.

Yeah, Hagar looks like the "cannon fodder." That's not exactly the right term, I think more will survive than you might expect because Jetstone has healers and Tramennis isn't a boop-head. But from GK's point of view it's going to look like everyone -- Faq, Hagar, and Jetstone -- is firmly against them, when really there's more divisions and factions in the "coalition" than Parson (and Stanley, and maybe Ansom too) is aware of.

[1Luv]

I don't think Sammy decided he'd be going first.

I feel this is Charlies own suggestion, in order to make sure Haggar doesn't make any rash moves afterthe battle(if he survives).

That and Sammy did harm some of Charlescomms assets.(morality and any potential caring for his units aside, Archons are valuable units, and no one likes to see resources wasted by someone whose nominally supposed to be being helped by said Archons(in Charlies grand scheming mind of course..)

[BLANDCorporatio]

Yeah.

Maybe Charlie was pissed that Sammy haggar started indulging in rough play without having payed the fees first. That's very bad for business.

[Alexei P]

This page marks a cornerstone for me. Its the first instance where info from the Text Updates is absolutely necessary to understand what's going on in the comic. The Text Updates officially went from bonus material to fully-fledged content.

[Rowen]

Prince Sammy is so endearingly ungracious in death.

[gazes_also]

Sammy once again demonstrates how dumb he is.
If he wanted to save some credibility he would try and look as if he was doing it willingly to support his allies and show he's a good guy really.
Instead he let's Charlie win brownie points (with Trammenis at least) for forcing the treacherous rat into the front lines.
Charlie is still suspect in everyone in RCCs eyes, but on the surface he has to look invested in them winning this one.

[imgran]

Innnnnnnnnnnteresting.

You all do realize that Jillian absolutely, absolutely cannot let Haggar go in the first wave without joining up and taking her orders. If they get ground up that's no loss, but if they manage to take a certain blonde decrypted Chief Warlord with them, well there go all of Jillian's plans, at least all the ones we assume she has. She'd avoid that risk at all costs.

There's about to be some trouble here.

[atteSmythe]

This page marks a cornerstone for me. Its the first instance where info from the Text Updates is absolutely necessary to understand what's going on in the comic. The Text Updates officially went from bonus material to fully-fledged content.

I think I'd agree...however, at this point, it's tempting to argue that understanding what's going on isn't strictly necessary for following the story. If this were book one, we'd see that Charlie just pulled some boop out of his boop and saved the day again, DEM-style. Last text update aside, we know that Haggar's side has been playing the opportunist, and that Charlie just coerced them into committing to Jetstone. I think that's all we really need right now.

[BLANDCorporatio]

Innnnnnnnnnnteresting.

You all do realize that Jillian absolutely, absolutely cannot let Haggar go in the first wave. If they get ground up that's no loss, but if they manage to take a certain blonde decrypted Chief Warlord with them, well there go all of Jillian's plans, at least all the ones we assume she has. She'd avoid that risk at all costs.

There's about to be some trouble here.

You sir/madam/entity have ninajed me.

We must now meet on the field of honour at dawn.

[imgran]

We know that mostly through the text updates, The only reference to Haggar's potential treachery that wasn't in the text updates was Tramennis' disclaimer one or two strips ago, so without the text updates we have basically a solution pulled out of posterior ether to a problem that was presented not very long ago.

They may not be necessary to the plot per se but the text updates were necessary to make this plot something other than a classic example of bad writing.

[Ninjaguineapig]

Sammy once again demonstrates how dumb he is.
If he wanted to save some credibility he would try and look as if he was doing it willingly to support his allies and show he's a good guy really.
Instead he let's Charlie win brownie points (with Trammenis at least) for forcing the treacherous rat into the front lines.
Charlie is still suspect in everyone in RCCs eyes, but on the surface he has to look invested in them winning this one.

Jetstone (Slately and Trem) know that Hagagr (Dickie and Sammy) hate their guts, and the feeling is mutual. He doesn't need to pretend to be doing something for them. Also, now the RCC knows that Charlie has a hand it what's going on, and due to Jillian's "no comment", they also know that Charlescomm is in cahoots with FAQ. Jill is going to get a serious dressing down from Don, and he may slash her funding. Also, Charlie always has an agenda. Jetstone and the RCC are going to be wary of Jillian (she's working with Charlie) and Sammy (Charlie has him by the boops).

[Tact]

If I were Sammy, I would use this turn wisely to evacuate the king and preserve my army. No way I'd lose the army fighting Gobwin Knob. That leaves Haggar as either a vassal or wiped out.

Haggar's capital falling to Charlie would be unfortunate, but as long as the side goes on and the army stays intact, it should be possible to take new cities and stay alive.

[Ditto]

I went and looked back through all the earlier comics - there was one reference to this column (Ossomer's report immediately after being decrypted in #10), and it does not mention that it's Haggar. There is zero information on Haggar outside of the text updates and #24 just now. I wholly agree with you, Alexei/imgran, this is either out of left field (at worst) or waaaaaay less interesting than if you knew the backstory (at best) for those who choose not to read the text updates. I mean, you barely had any idea of Charlie's involvement/investment with the whole situation aside from knowing he was linked to Vanna. If we were not alerted to that background, it'd be like, "ZOMG! How'd they do that?! ...oh, Charlie's supercharing her. I guess Charlie cares about this battle. That sneaky rascal!" and write it off as climactic derring-do. (Still a little left-field, but at least it fits with his MO.) The text updates make it clear he's putting a lot into play in order to affect this battle.

I'm also curious to see how Janis' predictions & advice circle back around the enter the main plot's consciousness.

Sammy could not support a large army if he lost the support from having the Side backing him. He would only have the units in his personal stack, and OF THOSE he could only keep the ones he could continue paying for. Not charing headfirst into GK *himself*, sure, that's a good idea, but thwarting Charlie by not ordering the attack altogether is not an option.

(You know, you can say 'Charlie has Haggar by the testes.' That's a known slip-past-the-censors word, heh.)

[jabbersocky]

Looks like charlie's going to be getting a few more contracts in the near future. Either Tramennis will convince slately that since he helped he can be trusted, or he'll keep on using him through faq in an 'unoffical' capacity.

Also is haggers column just infantry? because usually the heavy units stand at the side don't they? (unless they're twolls or twoll sized)

[BLANDCorporatio]

(You know, you can say 'Charlie has Haggar by the testes.' That's a known slip-past-the-censors word, heh.)

Lol, but unless the favourite past-times of Erfworld include footboop, basketboop and baseboop, I think you can say the other version too.

It worked for Tool after all.